It’s still a hairy problem for every mobile app developer: how do you attract new users in a hopelessly crowded app store?
Last year, video trailers for apps emerged as one popular for developers (and particularly game developers) to acquire users as Apple cracked down on other methods.
Several companies including San Francisco’s Flurry, which is also a popular mobile analytics provider, effectively became mobile video ad networks. Now the company is saying that a year later, it’s now seeing 100 million completed video ad views for mobile apps in its network. It’s also bringing its video ad network to Android.
Flurry’s product, called AppCircle Clips, lets mobile app users watch movie-style trailers for apps and other brands. At the end of the ad, the user can click over to the app store and download the app. All of the natural targeting capabilities for geography, device, and demographics are provided.
One game developer, Gaia Interactive, stepped forward as a case study. They crossed over from Facebook to iOS with their hit Monster Galaxy earlier this year and used Flurry as one of their acquisition channels. (Most developers rely on a mix of methods of get users into their apps or games.)
Gaia says that with Flurry, they got to a #3 ranking on the top free and grossing lists. They added that users coming through Flurry had 43 percent more sessions than the average and that those sessions lasted 23 percent longer. The company had tried other methods like banner ad campaigns earlier in the fall, but those led to a #15 ranking in the games category and the title quickly fell out of the top 100 after six days. Gaia re-oriented their marketing strategy toward video, with an action-style movie trailer that was published in Flurry’s network.
Advertisers in Flurry’s network pay per completed video view. Flurry didn’t say what the average publisher in the network earns except to say that eCPMs (or the effective cost-per-1,000-impressions) often tops $10. Several other rivals like Tapjoy, Sponsorpay and Vungle have veered down the in-app video advertising route over the past year as Apple put pressure on bots and offer walls as ways for developers to get new users.